On the 22nd of July 2014 at Hotel Prince de Galles in the city of Douala were gathered pastors and leaders from 78 different denominations both home and abroad for the second edition of the Christ Commission International pastors and leaders conference. For 5 days, participants were schooled in the mysteries of God.

Dr. Shawn during his introductory discourse made a very shocking but pertinent statement: “the bible in the hands of an untrained preacher is more dangerous than a scalpel in the hands of an untrained surgeon.” He underlined that the world today has not rejected Jesus but the image of Jesus the church has presented to the world; a very weak Jesus; the Jesus of our traditions, the Jesus of our denominations, the Jesus of our bible schools and even the Jesus of our own inventions. There is need for a rebirth of Christianity because the 21C Church has lost what made Christianity revolutionary 2000 years ago. Making allusion to the theme of the conference (‘Saving yourself and those who hear you’ from 1 Tim 4:16), Dr. Shawn underscored that ministers have to watch over themselves with the eyes of understanding. He said that there is a system of truth revealed in the gospel for which they have received the assignment to pass on to the Church and to the world. But this will depend on something known as ‘mode of perception’, because as he has the habit of saying, what you are persuaded of inevitably becomes your experience in life. It was along these lines that he stated clearly that as a minister, whatever you are most persuaded of will be your experience and that of your members and so unless you are able to save yourself, you won’t be able to save those who hear you.

During the first session of the conference, Dr. Shawn taught on the concept of ministry, calling on all the ministers present to do a quality control check on what they have called ministry. He began by presenting some statistics from a survey carried out by the Banna Research Group which in summary reveal that for every 10 churches that open 6 will close down within two to seven years. It is without doubt that we are living in an unprecedented time of unparalleled opportunities (technology) to evangelize the world but the question that arises is the following: why is the church not emerging in the world as a force to be reckoned with? It is because the church has lost what made Christianity revolutionary 2000yrs ago. Today, the institutions of the church have been secularized. Ministers are motivated by the success of leadership and forget the sacrifice of ministry. In our world today, men and women are in ministry to make a quick buck; the sacred calling of ministry has been hijacked by charlatans and everything and anything passes for the name of God; many on the pulpit have confused ambition for God’s vision – and all these weaken the witness of the Lord to the world Dr. Shawn pointed out bitterly. He stressed that to successfully re-evangelize the 21st century world, there must be a separation of the weed from the wheat and for this the church has to go back to the patristic definition of ministry.

Dr. Shawn proceeded to present what he termed the source of all that ails ministers in ministry: firstly their misconception of ministry and secondly, falling victim to the messianic complex and these contribute to the ‘ministerial burn-out’ experienced by ministers. Ministers get so engrossed in ministry that they forget whose ministry it is primarily; once you don’t see that it is His ministry in which you are simply a partaker, you would think it is by your own might. During the remaining 8 sessions of the conference, Dr. Shawn brought the participants to the understanding of the apostolic and patristic definition of ministry. He schooled his audience on the following themes: qualified for the call, character and credibility as they apply to ministry, the difference between the scriptures, the word of God and the gospel, rightly dividing the word of truth and then marriage, family and ministry. The latter being a domain in the Christian world where there is great disorder. In two of the sessions Dr. Shawn addressed the Zionist agenda existing in the church today whereby the church is exalting the nation of Israel as the special people of God. He proved through the New Testament that the Jew has no special advantage over the Gentile in this age of grace; that Abraham’s seed does not refer to the natural posterity of Abraham but to Christ and that the new Israel of God is the new creation in Christ. As described in the very words of the participants, the conference was revolutionary and mind-blowing and it was crowned with the participants partaking of Holy Communion.

As one who has been entrusted with the revelation of the mystery of the gospel as revealed to the Apostle Paul, it is Dr. Shawn’s passion to equip ministers with resources to enable them minister effectively. And so during this conference, he offered to all the ministers present copies of his book ‘Romans Revealed’ (a verse by verse commentary of Paul’s epistle to the Romans) commissioning them to “go and study it and preach it”. Also during the conference, all of Drs. Shawn and Annie’s teachings and books and his latest publication ‘The Shawn Smith Compendium of Paul’s Epistles’ were sold at outstanding discount rates.

In the course of the five days of the conference, paradigms were readjusted. It is without doubt that the Lord is raising men and women for the rising of the glorious church.

You can benefit from all the teachings dispensed by Dr. Shawn Smith during this conference by registering to be a member of CCI. To know about the registration formalities, go to the registration menu.

Table of Sessions of the Second Edition of Christ Commission International